...Navajo Noir "Beautiful 'Dark Winds'"

Don’t take your foot off the gas.  Even if you tried, that supernatural Southwestern spirit might not let you.  Instead, hitch your 1970s GMC truck to the spooky full moon, cradled atop a sparkling hot fire in the desert.  That fire is fueled by love (both beautiful and misguided), cultural vendettas (seemingly as ancient as time), and a lust for money, power, legacy, and more.  At night, the wind can find you easier than in the daylight.  What’s more, at night, that wind has a hue, a sacred “shadowy” color.  Yes, enter my beloved Navajo noir, my dance of the Diné.  You are my new favorite TV show, dear “Dark Winds.”

Premiering in ol’ pandemic time of 2021, this TV treasure was not discovered by me until its third season here in 2025.  Blast.  But better late than never.  “Dark Winds” focuses on the trials and tribulations of three main characters, who are all members of the Kayeda Police Department of the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation in the Four Points section of the USA (the borders of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado).  Hello, Lieutenant Leaphorn (played brilliantly by Zahn McClarnon), then Sargeant Bernadette Manuelito (played equally brilliantly by Jessica Matten), and FBI agent-turned-local police deputy Chee (played, you guessed it, equally brilliantly by Kiowa Gordon).

Now cop shows are as old as TV itself, but “Dark Winds” is wonderfully different.  It’s an American Indian “noir” cop show.  It’s set in, and shot in, the rarely-explored-by-TV American Southwest, where its dry, dusty desert is ironically an intimate feast for the senses.  As a viewer, you can feel the hot, craggy land, and the hot, luminous sun.  You can taste the thirst-quenching 1970s RC cola, and you can get lost in the pretty glint of a turquoise ring, as it gleams under that same hot sun.  We’re talkin’ atmosphere.  Couple all this spectacular evocation with strong costuming, set design, and 1970s rock songs (let’s hear it for the Allman Brothers, the Rolling Stones, and more) and “Dark Winds” truly sucks you into its world.

But like any good noir, the excellence lies not just in the skillful execution of atmosphere, shadow, and cinematography.  No, it’s the puzzling plot twists, character turns, and big end-of-season reveals that make “Dark Winds” so riveting.  These actors have awesome on-screen chemistry, which gets us interested in their characters’ lives, and keeps us interested throughout all the episodes. 

Whether it’s taking down a fake “poser” priest who has a sinister agenda attached to an armored vehicle heist in Season 1, then in Season 2 bringing justice to a man who killed Lieutenant Leaphorn’s son at the quarry, and lastly, taking down drug smugglers at the USA/Mexico border in a total classic “whodunit” (Go Bern, with your bad-border-patrol-self, you rock!), “Dark Winds” sparks up some major desert heat.

Now 1940s and ‘50s Old Hollywood had some iconic black and white film noirs, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Out of the Past (1947), and everyone loves the brilliance of Double Indemnity (1944).  Um, how did Fred MacMurray’s character Walter not see that bullet coming from femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis?  These nail-biters deserve their place in noir infamy.  But, here’s showing some modern 2020s love to “Dark Winds,” too.  It’s a show that masterfully proves that noir can be in color, can be 1970s, and can exist anywhere.  Yes, gotta love that wild, remote Southwestern desert, and all the magical indigenous spirit that lives within. 

Noir is about more than external elements, and “Dark Winds” beautifully confirms that.  It brings us into each character’s rich internal worlds, where we get to witness their deepest, darkest fears, and how some of these fears manage to “break the barrier” and transcend into real life.  We are what we think?  What frightening manifestation. 

Thank you to all the cast and crew who created such a uniquely special and powerful show that, on top of all the awesome noir drama, brings us fully-formed, well-rounded indigenous characters.  We need this!  Representation is important.  Big kudos also to guest stars like Jenna Elfman (who plays FBI Special Agent Sylvia Washington) and Season 3/Episode 1 cameo Robert Redford.  Yes, that’s right.  The movie star “myth” and “legend” Robert Redford plays an adorable jail bird who likes to play chess.  (FYI:  This is his first time on camera in six years!)  What’s more, he’s an executive producer on the show.  All in all, “Dark Winds” has brought me some much-loved TV binge-time this year.  I have always adored the color turquoise.  But now I love it even more.   

This post is dedicated to the one and only Robert Redford. Happy 89th Birthday today!